USC’s Sports Business Association, or SBA, is hosting its third annual Sports Business Summit in the Trojan Grand Ballroom on Thursday, November 13. The summit, presented by Uninterrupted and State Farm, will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last until 5 p.m., according to the event’s website.
Last year’s summit drew over 1,500 attendees and featured 20 high-profile speakers across six panels. Notable guests included Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, Los Angeles Rams President Kevin Demoff and Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts.
Aldo Mahe, vice president of outreach for SBA, said all are welcome to the event, whether interested in working in sports or not.
“We don’t want to make it too sports and too niche,” said Mahe.
The event will host six different one-hour panels ranging from the LA28 Olympics to women in sports, opening up to audiences afterwards for a Q&A session.
Graduate Annenberg student Bennett Weinschenk hopes to meet and network with others who are interested in sports as a career.
“I’m not really experienced on the business side of sports and communications is more my thing,” Weinscenk said. “I definitely want to connect with more people who are interested in the same field, but have a different skill set than I do.”
The summit offers opportunities for students to network with sports business leaders and alumni during the hour-long lunch & learn session. A QR code will be available during the event for attendees to submit their resume to the pool of industry professionals attending the summit.
This year, the speaker lineup includes Excel Sports Management Co-Head of Golf Andrew Kipper, Wasserman Executive Vice President of Football Doug Hendrickson, Principle and Head of WME Basketball Bill Duffy, Assistant Managing Editor for Sports Money at Forbes Brett Knight, LA28 Chief Athlete Officer Janet Evans, LA28 Vice President for Strategy Dre Taylor Lindsay, USC Annenberg Professor Jeff Fellenzer and more to be announced.
“They’ll be talking about what they do, the current news and what’s going on in the sports world,” Mahe said. “There’s opportunities to learn there.”
Campbell Donovan, a senior Annenberg student, is planning on attending the summit next week to expand her knowledge in sports business.
“I think there’s a really interesting opportunity right now in the current media landscape to maximize the intersection between business and journalism,” Donovan said.
Students are able to RSVP tickets and secure spots at the event’s website.
This story was updated after publication to reflect more panelists will be announced.